Remarks on a Late Trial and Conviction

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370 Remarks on a late Trial and Conviction. [Nov.

ther of mitigation or aggravation,
in the extent of the punishment they

ble, that the preponderating opinion
is on the side of troth. That a zeal
for civil and religious liberty is, and
ever will be, the distinguishing cha-
racteristic feature of Irishmen as well
as Britons. It is to he hoped that
this spirit will never be annihilated
by the arm of tyranny; but, that
truth, conscious of the righteousness
of her cause, will never despair of
■victory ; will never sink under op-
pression ; will never relinquish her
contest with error, until her zeal,
constancy, and resolution, are ulti-
mately crowned with complete suc-

CCSiS.

Marcell'us.

To the Proprietors of tie Belfast Magazine^

Gentlemen,

I MUST confess I was not a little
surprised, on reading over an ac-
count of a late trial and conviction :
the parts which most particularly
arrested my attention, were, first,
" Whether the assault was commit-
ted;" this the Jury thought, tit to
assent to, by their verdict of guilty.
When I had read so far, my mind
was prepared for the reception of an
impartial sentence, founded on the
verdict of the Jury ; so far da la.
gcee with the .sentence, "you have
been indicted for an assault on the
person, &e." — "that Jury has pro-
nounced yon guilty.'" Why then,
I ask, was not the, sentence of the
law passed suitable to such a" violent
assault," without taking into consi-
deration, (as expressed in the sen-
tence,) that '* it was only in the. pow-
er of the Jury to decide on the sim-
ple fact, of your guilt or innocence;
it was not in their power to connect
with their verdict the peculiar cir-
cumstances attending .the case; that
is a. duty relet red to the Bench in
passing sentence., and they are to lit;
guided by those ciicuutbt.uice.*, .wile-

are to iijflict.' j

" The Bench have considered it ne-
cessary to attend particularly to the
disrespect you had shown on that oc-
casion to the Judges and Juries of the
land, and the Constitution of the
country."

The traverser was indicted for an
assault. Was he punished for that
assault alone ? No, he was not ; the
offence was divided by the Bench,
and from the one offence they made
two crimes to flow, one for the deci-
sion of the Jury, the other for the
Bench ; the Jury punish biin for the
assault, the Bench for the " disre-
spect, &c." I always understood
the great bulwark of liberty to be a
trial by Jury 4 but in this instance
the Jury only performed part of the
business, they adjudged the traverser
guilty of the assault, but the Bench
created a new power to themselves,
unknown to the Constitution, that of
Judge and Jury in one body, (which
by the principles of the Cmistitij-
tion were wisely intended to act as
a counterpoise one on the other,)
and consequently the punishment
inflicted on the traverser was beyond
that due for the " violent assault,"
" as the Bench have considered it
necessary to attend particularly to
the disrespect, &«.," and measured
their sentence accordingly, not by
I Jit* verdict of the Jury for the assault,
but for the *' disrespect, &c."

Had the traverser committed a
breach of the law, in having spoken
against the Judges, &e., why .not
let biin: have a fair trial by jury?
If , the Jury should find him guilty,
let him bow in ^submission to their
decision; but in this case, he vv,ts
condemned, for this supposed offence,
without referring it to his Peers;
the Bench referred to the Jury the
question of ijis guilt or innocence
lor the .supposed assault, they con-

1813 ] Remarks on a late Trial and Conviction. 371

demned him for it, but the Bench
confined to themselves the power
to decide on the legality or illegality
of the supposed libel, and they,
with their self-created authority,
found him guilty of the libel ; thus
the " extent" of the punishment was
created by their own decision on the
libel, and not on the verdict for the
assault, as found by the Jury. Give
the utmost scope to their reasoning
on the union of punishment for se-
parate (unjudged) offences, they
must, in the first place, prove the
indivisibility of the offences. How
stood the case here ? The cause of
the alleged assault was for speaking
incautiously of an absent relation
of traverser's, nor is it alleged tra-
verser accompanied supposed assault
by any unbecoming invective to-
wards the person or family of the
prosecutor; had it been so, and add-
ed insult lo injury, there might
have been some shadow for the rea-
soning of the Bench;: the reverse
however appeared in evidence, the
" touch" was accompanied with the
mildest language, and the words for
which the additional weight of pun-
ishment fell on the unfortunate tra-
verser, were spoken at a different
time,* and in their nature wholly fo-
reign to the alleged assault. The
gentleman for the prosecution fairly
admitted it to be a simple assault,
altogether unconnected with party.
How the Bench could couple and
blend together things so discordant
in their nature, appears to me irre-
concilable, either to common rea-
son or common law, and that while
they boast of the excellence of the

* It must be considered another time,
as the word* were spoken before the al-
leged assault, and to another person ; the
assault must simply stand an assault, any-
thing which occurred before or since as-
sault, must be considered distinct from that
assault.

Constitution, they could out-step its
bounds so far. What would the
consequence have been, had the
jury returned a verdict of not guilty
for the assault ? The Bench must
have informed the traverser. Sir,
The Jury have acquitted you of the
assault, but, Sir, you cannot oe dis-
charged, We (the Bench) have other
matter sufficient for your condemna-
tion ; it is clear, we need not truuble
the jury, you have spoken " disre-
spectfully of the Judge and Jury
of the land, and Constitution of the
country," for which we are unani-
mous in the sentence, which is, that
you pay, &c. £.25, and that you
be imprisoned for six weeks. The
Judges, on this occasion, must have
forgotten the old maxim of the law,
that considers every man innocent,
until the contrary be proved. They
may well boast of our Constitution,
but that cannot be a pure Constitu-
tion, that admits an innocent man
to be found guilty by a Judge, with-
out even the readv instrument of a
passive Jury ; that would be purity
of law indeed 1

It is admitted on all hands, that
error springs from one of the two
following causes, ignorance or cor-
ruption ; to which of them the sen-
tence in the above case is to be im-
puteJ, I leave to the candid reader
to judge; but ill-fated must that
couutrybe, where whe;i a man is
found honest enough to avow his
principles, he must pay the forfeit
of that avowal, to a fac.iou, and be
immured in a dungeon, without the
verdict of a Jury. We may be told
of the domineering po«ver of French
monarchy, but the country that
falls to the level I have st >ted, of ac-
cusing a man for one Hence, and
punishing him for another, must be
in abject slavery indeed.

I am. Gentlemen,

Your much obliged, J.C,

Belfast, sHhJS'uV. IS 13.